Each Year, 2.2 Million Say 'Cheese' At Photo Centers

April 12, 1989|by HARRY FISHER, The Morning Call

Formal portraiture it's not, but the ritual of getting one's picture plastered on a driver's license is one that few take lightly.

Curiosity and surprise pervade the photo license center at the South Mall in Salisbury Township, where subjects watch their children or mingle with other licensees waiting to glimpse the tiny 1-by-2-inch snapshots.

"Do I have to wear my glasses?" asks one before being momentarily blinded by the burst of light. "You want me to smile?" responds another.

All the photographers in the Lehigh Valley's three photo centers are supervised by Pennsylvania Industries for the Blind and Handicapped (PIBH). Most of them are at least partially handicapped.

Throughout the state, about 225 people are employed to take the 2.2 million photographs each year, according to Steven Fister, state manager for the license program in Harrisburg.

When you consider that only 500 of those photographs may have to be redone, these highly specialized camera operators have a pretty fair batting average. They may be responsible for as many as 50 jobs in one hour.

But then again, nobody's perfect.

"Hardly anybody likes their driver's license photo," admits Fister, "but the same is true when they see most pictures of themselves.

"When people look at studio proofs, they'll look at five or six and have a hard time picking even one, but if someone is seriously displeased with their picture we will make provisions to get it replaced," he says.

"I always try to get them to laugh," says Macungie resident Karen Fogel, who takes the miniature pictures at the South Mall center.

"But some people come in with a sour face," she says, "so we jest, in the hope of getting some in a better mood."